We got to celebrate the first day of spring doing some spring snowboarding. Some wonderful ladies in the ward (thanks to Harmony's planning) watched our kids while Harmony and I went up to part of the Swiss Alps (Les Diablerets - Meillerts and Villars, in fact) and tried to get in some last snowboarding before the snow melted. This last week was very warm - into the 60s - sunny beautiful days each day. So we thought we'd get in some good spring skiing.
That's a picture of Harmony on top of the slope. Saturday the weather started to turn. But we still enjoyed some very warm and sunny snowboarding until lunch time at which point it started to sprinkle. The feeling of the snow was very strange, as it was extremely slushy. Slushy snow has a weird and inconsistent feeling of both being more slippery and giving than normal snow - but also more sticky and slow-you-down. Once I sliddown half the slope on my bum as if I was on a slip-n-slide - but the sliding was so fast and effective that I was able to reposition and get up on my board all without losing any speed (only my goggles - which are only half effective in the rain anyway).
As for snowboarding in the rain - I don't recommend it. Oddly it wasn't as cold as you'd think it would be - I mean if it's raining it can't be freezing, right? But we were soaked through by the end.
We also encountered a number of pull lifts that we hadn't ever used before - where you sit/straddle a bar and get pulled up the mountain. This is not anywhere near as relaxing as a real lift and seems to be much more focused to skiers than snowboarders. Harmony had some trouble with these lifts and fell down once or twice. This video is of her making it all the way up!
When we got home (after having to traverse several pond-like areas towards the bottom of the slopes) we took the kids to a park where they were burning the "Bonhomme d'hiver". Cado was told about it at his school and I don't think I've seen him so excited about an event in a really long time - probably equivalent to Christmas excitement. He ran the whole way there and my sore snowboarding legs couldn't keep up. I don't have much information on this - but I would associate it with the first day of spring and a celebration to burn winter. The "bonhomme" which translates to "goodman" looks like a Taurus - which is a winter constellation for the northern hemisphere. Here's a picture:
So with music and a fire-breathing man we burnt winter away. Then soup, bread, and cheese was given to everyone. This is a great start to the many warm weather celebrations we are looking forward to.
Here's some video of the burning man:
Happy Spring everybody!
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